NFS: Undercover (PC Review)

NFS: Undercover (PC Review)

Navneet Prakash, Jan 15, 2009 1827 hrs IST

Undercover is the latest in the NFS series where you play an undercover cop who tries to work his way up the criminal ranks in a fictional city called Tri-city.

Huge area to explore, Great online multiplayer, Impressive car roster.

Bad engine, Really boring FMV sequences, Dull plot, Easy AI.

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Expert Review

So when the object is to reach from point A to point B, choosing your own route in a huge city gives you freedom and the win is more satisfying. NFS Undercover has a weird system, as once you start racing, all the other routes are blocked and you have linear track to race on rendering the open-world environment useless. There are traditional race modes in the game, as well as some that are inspired from other games like Outrun and Cops and Robbers. The objective in Outrun is to basically maintain a certain distance between you and your opponent for a brief period of time, do so and you win the race. Cops and Robbers is an online mode, more about that later in the review.

There is a huge selection of cars in the game, including some unreleased cars like the Nissan 370z, making the cars roster highly impressive. The cars look great as the engine has been tweaked up a lot, making the game look really good (but trust me the performance is just as bad). Winning races will make you money, which in turn can be used to get better parts and customize your car to look unique. There are a decent number of customization options, so you can spend a lot of time fine tuning the looks of the car. There is a really odd system that lets you transfer real world money from your PSN or XBLA account in the game, so if you have more cash than you need, go ahead and burn some of it.

The single player is quiet easy, even new comers will be able to finish the game quickly, so jump in if you're new to the series. The real challenge is online, and lets all thank EA for that. The single player includes a lot of cop chases, in a system that is fairly similar to Most Wanted. As you race, the cops take notice and keep track of your activities and over a period of time more and more cops take a keen interest in bringing you down. With every passing chase the number of cops increases and so does the difficulty. However, what makes evading the cops easy are the relatively empty and wide open roads. There are times when the cops will block the road but you can use the Speed-Breaker system to pass through them and continue racing. The pursuit breaker system makes a comeback here and can be used to evade a large number of cops. Once you gather enough heat, you will be required to dump your upgraded car to lower the heat level, which I think is rather unfair. The single player is mediocre at best, redemption lies in the multiplayer.

The game has a decent multiplayer package, which consists of an online eight player multiplayer mode. Online play is good fun, and depending on your connection, quite stable. There is a cops and robbers mode, which basically splits the players into two teams. One team has to steal and transfer some cash, while the cops try to stop them (Midtown Madness anyone?). The online play is good fun and saves the game from total disaster.

Graphics and Presentation

The game is a technical loser, I was playing the game on a decent gaming rig but the poorly optimized engine made my system shed tears. The game freezes quiet often; there is noticeable lag throughout the single player. The following are my rig details:

E8400 Core 2 Duo( 3.0 GHz)

4GB Ram

ATI" 4850

I used the same system to play Crysis Warhead and it worked like charm, not the same with NFS Undercover. The FMV sequences are boring and poorly acted, making the already boring and dramatic plot even more boring. I am and always will be a big NFS fan, but this one has left me a little disappointed.